General View. The volume allows the development of different uses and scales offering both intimate and collective spaces.

About the Project

We can say that the project consists in building a house inside of a house, which means that it is more similar to the process of building a single-family house than an interior rehabilitation. This is because it has its own structure, enclosures, and installations.

The concept of the project was to generate 10 horizontal structures in different heights embracing different functions above and beneath them depending on its height. The structure for those horizontal planes is sometimes resting on the floor and other times hanging from the ceiling and its in-between spaces are filled by wood or glass panels depending on the function they embrace. The same happens with the glass facades.

The different levels and heights work as furniture that change it’s use by the space they generate, being always linked by stairs or short corridors.

Our purpose was to use the thinnest structure possible so we opted for a metallic system with an 8x8cm section, which its interior is used to contain the installations. The rest of the materials were chosen in order to mimic themselves with the wooden and existent floors and the white walls.

The privacy in the different areas of the house is handled by the opacity of the glass that encloses the in-between structure space, most of them are transparent, but some are turned translucent or opaque depending on the privacy necessity.

What’s unique about it

For us, this Project deserves to win the 2019 Frame Awards because it is not just an interior house project.

This project gets a volumetric dualism that generates a larger number of atmospheres than spaces, these can be joined and interact between themselves or can be used independently. The volumetric game and the feelings we get in the interior of this house are completely different from the standard concept of a “house”.

Above this, under the premise of creating a versatile extension of the house programme, the original materials of the building where the dwelling is set are emphasized. Bricks, wood and the Catalan vault roof system. This traditional Spanish building method from the XXth century gets undressed and brings a constructive sincerity that translates itself into the used substructure, this way although two different constructive phases can be distinguished, the project is understood as a unique concept.

In addition, the project leads to creativity with spaces such a studio or workspace where concentration is the goal as areas with great light to paint, hanging a swing seat and the possibility to play in the double height area.